Havel signs letter in support of human rights observance in China

Havel signs letter in support of human rights observance in China

Prague, April 12 (CTK) - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel and other Central European personalities have signed an open letter to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in which they ask him for human rights observance and release of detained activists.

The document was written by Chinese exile writer Bei Ling.

The artists recall that people who want to express their opinions have been repeatedly arrested in China and that the Chinese authorities restrict the work of foreign journalists.

Such police steps have been escalating in the past two months, the letter says.

It points to the arrest of Ai Weiwei, famous critic of the Chinese regime, at the airport in Beijing in early April.

Along with Havel, the letter was signed by Czech writers Ivan Klima and Jachym Topol, Polish journalist and former dissident Adam Michnik and Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinekova, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Czech architects also joined the appeal.

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